Professor Martin Foster

PhD, MSc, BEng

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Professor of Energy Storage & Conversion

Theme Lead for Power Devices and Systems

Martin Foster
Profile picture of Martin Foster
m.p.foster@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5392

Full contact details

Professor Martin Foster
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Profile

I received BEng, MSc and PhD degrees from Sheffield in 1998, 2000 & 2003 respectively. I was appointed lecturer in 2003 and since this time undertaken research in power electronic energy conversion and battery management systems. In 2016 I was made Professor of Energy Storage and Conversion. My research interests span across the field of power electronic energy conversion, machine drives systems, thermal modelling & management, battery characterisation & health motoring and grid-connected energy storage.

Energy storage and applications form a large part of my research activities and I have involved in a number of EPSRC sponsored research projects including “FEVER: Future Electric Vehicle Energy networks supporting Renewables” which aims to develop off-grid EV charging stations. Past projects include establishing the Willenhall Energy Storage Systems, a 2 MW, 1 MWh grid connected lithium titanate battery energy storage research facility and “TransEnergy:Road to Rail Exchange” which investigated the use of lineside electrical energy storage applications on railway networks. I am a founder member of Centre for Research in Electrical Energy Storage and Applications covering many aspects of battery energy storage from pack design to EV battery charging.

Power electronics research includes multilevel converters, gate drivers, magnetics design and thermal management. Significant EPSRC sponsored projects include “FPET: Framework for designing piezoelectric resonant power supplies” in which developed mathematical models and design algorithms for piezoelectric devices, resonant power supplies and controllers for achieving soft-switching and voltage regulation; “Targeted waveform enhanced plasma microreactor: Engineering Chemistry at the Interface of Microbubbles” developing high-voltage power supplies and controllers for plasma chemistry and “A New Partnership in Offshore Wind: Siemens Wind Power Prosperity Partnership” looking at improving wind power generation technologies.

I work closely with industry and have been involved in many Innovate UK sponsored project including EV power electronics with Nissan, power tool machines and drives, induction sealing for food products, architectural lighting.

Qualifications
  • PhD, University of Sheffield 2003
  • MSc(Eng) (Control Systems), University of Sheffield 2000
  • BEng (Electronic Engineering), University of Sheffield 1998
Research interests
  • Resonant power supplies
  • Piezoelectric transformers (PTs)
  • Power electronics packaging and thermal management
  • Multilevel power converters
  • Battery management technologies
Publications

Journal articles

Conference proceedings papers

Presentations

  • Forrester J, Li L, Davidson J, Foster M, Stone D & Reaney I Investigation of using BSPT for ring-dot piezoelectric transformers for use in high-temperature resonant power supplies. Oxford. RIS download Bibtex download
Research group

Power Devices & Systems

Teaching activities
  • EEE225 - Analogue and Digital Electronics
  • EEE307 - Power Electronics
Professional activities and memberships
  • IET